HISTORY: Santa Ana Land Grant of two square leagues was awarded by Mexico in
1834 to Benigno Leal. Headquarters for Leal’s Rancho del Adentro ("Inside
ranch") was near the cemetery, part of whose palisade fence of 130-year-old
ebony logs still stands.

In 1852, Cristobal and Victoria Balli Leal sold the east league (4428 acres)
to Eli T. Merriman, one of Hidalgo County’s first commissioners. The Yankee
surgeon and Mexican-American war veteran planned a vast cattle ranch.

The next year, Thomas Walter Jones (c1827-1853) of Washington DC drowned in
the Rio Grande while surveying the Texas-Mexico border for the International
Boundary Commission, in accordance with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848.
He was buried at Dr. Merriman’s ranch.

In 1859, Leal and his wife Victoria Balli adopted Cristobal Leal (1833-1876)
as their heir. The adopted son is buried in Santa Ana Cemetery, in a large
boveda (above-ground crypt) erected by his widow (and first cousin), Maria
Rafaela Treviño, daughter of adjacent El Gato (Sp. "cat") Land
Grantee Jose Maria Treviño.

According to family tradition, Benigno Leal was killed by Indians in revenge
for the death of a member of their tribe, whom Leal killed for trespassing.

The east league passed by tax sale deed in 1878 from Merriman to Dr. W. T.G.
Brewster, a Union surgeon who had settled in the Rio Grande Valley. By 1902,
both leagues of the Santa Ana Grant were held by Peter Ebenezer Blalock,
developer of Camp Ebenezer (later Alamo).

In 1943, Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge comprising 1,981 acres was
established. The staff maintains the cemetery, as well as Brewster Cemetery,
also located on the Refuge.